One witness told Fox59 she watched Cooper walk up the aisle toward her, “and I noticed he didn’t have a shopping cart or had any groceries and he was on his cell phone, a lot of (profane) language, and he turned and I went straight and all of a sudden I heard a commotion and I heard him yelling and I thought, ‘Oh, there’s going to be a fight,’ and then I heard three gunshots.

“I looked down the other way after the gunshots and the guy was running right there at the aisle and it looked like he had a knife in his hand.”

The woman said she did not see Cooper with a gun but the man who ran past her was dressed in a red zip down hoodie which is the same clothing the suspect’s acquaintances described when they saw him last week as he was trying to stay in compliance with the Indiana Sex Offender Registry.

“He showed up and said how he couldn’t get registered and he said how they were trying to get him registered as a sex offender because he wasn’t living here,” said Douglas McLean outside the eastside house where Cooper wanted to pitch a tent in the backyard. “They were kind of threatening to put him in jail for not registering and then on top of that he was trying to register as homeless and he said they were following him.”

“I think of all the times he really went bonkers it could have gone a lot worse than it did,” said McLean who recalled Cooper was kicked out of the house for his disruptive behavior. “I’ve never really seen him fight anybody. I’ve pretty much only really seen him fight himself.”

Another resident was stunned by news of Cooper’s arrest.

“I don’t know why he would have an irrational decision of shooting somebody three times and then running out and jacking a car and then going toward Greenwood and wrecking it,” said Ammon Sturgeon.

A woman told police that a gunman matching Cooper’s description ran out of the store after the killing and stole her vehicle while apologizing, “I’m very sorry. I need your car.”

Miles away, a police pursuit ended with a crash and a short foot chase before Cooper was arrested.

After two nights in the hospital, Cooper was transferred to police custody as detectives prepared to interview him.

Surrounded by family, Castro’s widow told Fox59 that she was stunned by the murder of her husband who she described as a tranquil, responsible man.